The state agency that audits Indiana’s local government bodies insists on transparency when it looks through their financial records.
But the State Board of Accounts doesn’t follow that practice when it submits bills for the audits it conducts, according to the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.
NIRPC’s executive board recently passed a resolution asking the State Board of Accounts to “provide detailed accounting to units of government in Indiana for the audit it conducts … accounting for actual hours spent and precise activities conducted …”
Local governments “have little agency over how the SBOA conducts these audits and must accept hired consulting firms hired by the SBOA,” the NIRPC resolution says.
They also have “no foreknowledge of the estimated costs of these audits until confronted with an invoice from the SBOA …. that these units of government are then required to pay.”
The resolution also contends that “the paucity of information in these audits would not, ironically, be accepted by the SBOA for payment if received from any other vendor analyzed by an audit conducted by the SBOA.”
NIRPC also undergoes State Board of Accounts audits and has experienced the same issues other local governments have had with the SBOA, NIRPC Executive Director Ty Warner said after the executive board meeting.
“We don’t have any control over how they audit. We just get the bill,” Warner said.
The bill for NIRPC’s latest audit came to $22,683, he said.
The NIRPC resolution also asks that the state government, which has had a surplus of revenue over expenses in recent years, cover the cost of SBOA audits in future years.
Warner said state legislators from Northwest Indiana will get copies of NIRPC’s resolution, with the hope that someone will sponsor legislation supporting its aims, and local governments will be encouraged to pass similar resolutions.
He also said that the latest edition of NIRPC’s Greenways and Blueways map, which shows bike and pedestrian trails across the region, along with water trails for canoes and kayaks, is being distributed.
Tim Zorn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
